Danny Garcia: Spence’s Style Great For Me; Porter Was Hitting Him A Lot

Danny Garcia noticed things about Errol Spence Jr. in his highly competitive fight against Shawn Porter that made Garcia more confident than ever that he can beat Spence.

Garcia called out Spence in the ring following Spence’s split-decision victory over Porter. Spence-Garcia was discussed for January 25 before Spence suffered injuries in a one-car accident October 10 in Dallas.

The 30-year-old Spence has recovered and is training again. He expects to fight in September or October, depending on how long the coronavirus crisis prevents promoters from scheduling boxing matches.

Philadelphia’s Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) hopes Spence chooses to fight him in Spence’s first fight back. The two-division champion explained the possibility of boxing Spence next during the most recent episode of “The PBC Podcast,” co-hosted by Kenneth Bouhairie and Michael Rosenthal.

“You know, I feel like that’s a great style for me because Porter was hitting him a lot,” Garcia said. “And I seen things in the Mikey Garcia fight that I can definitely take advantage of and defeat him.”

Spence soundly beat the previously undefeated Mikey Garcia in their 12-round welterweight fight in March 2019 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Porter gave Spence much more trouble, but Spence knocked him down during the 11th round and won their welterweight title unification fight on two scorecards September 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“I thought it was a good fight,” Danny Garcia said. “I had Porter ahead before the knockdown. I had Porter winning the fight. And then, when Spence scored the knockdown, [and] Spence won the 12th round, then I had him winning by like a point.”

Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) won eight rounds apiece on the scorecards of judges Rey Danesco (116-111) and Steve Weisfeld (116-111). Judge Larry Hazzard Jr. scored eight rounds for Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs), who won 115-112 on his card.

Almost immediately after that decision was announced, Danny Garcia got in Spence’s face and challenged the IBF/WBC champion to fight him next.

“I was told,” Garcia recalled, “you know, ‘You wanna fight him next?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Why not? Let’s get it. I wanna be champion again and he has two belts. This is the opportunity for me to become champion again and win two more belts.’ So, I went in the ring and I called him out.”

Garcia acknowledged that confronting Spence publicly wasn’t something he wouldn’t have done without some prompting.

“Every fighter has egos, for sure,” Garcia said. “But it is entertainment, and this is what they’re paying for, to see. So, sometimes you’ve gotta step out of your element and do what you’ve never done before. I’ve never done that before. Yeah, it was new to me. But it is entertainment and that’s what the fans wanna see, so that’s what we’ve gotta give ‘em.”

The 32-year-old Garcia was noncommittal when asked if topping Spence would be the biggest win of his 12-year pro career.

“You know, I have some big wins in my career,” Garcia said. “I’ve fought some pretty high-level fights. But it’ll rank among those, you know, big wins. And it depends how I beat him. So, you know, that plays a factor, too.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.